Here is a little update on Isaac, since he turned 3 on June 21st:

Isaac is definitely his daddy’s boy. He excels at gross motor skills, loves to run and be chased by people, and often scares other people by the high-heights he succeeds at jumping from. He loves anything with wheels, bugs, and animals. I rarely know where his bruises come from, and am amazed at how well he knows the Disney Cars characters (he can and does name them all on the street). He likes to play with his brother, I love it when he remembers to say "thank you", and everything is right in the world when he says "I wuv woo, momma" at night. If anyone ever tries to hurt or make fun of this boy...well, I understand the term momma-bear.

Isaac has been blessed with a strong will–and I do consider it a blessing. It can make things hard right now, but I am so thankful for it and am willing to work on honing that personality trait, because as he gets older, he will probably not struggle with peer-pressure and insecurities like some of his peers will.

Isaac, my greatest desire for you is not that you are successful, or make a lot of money, have lots of friends, fun, whatever...Isaac, I hope that as you grow up, you will come to know Jesus Christ as your personal savior. I pray that you will grow up and learn to fear and love Him as your Lord, and that you would seek to do His will...even if it’s not yours. I pray for your wife now (if there is one), that she would do the same. I pray that when you do encounter evil, that you will look to the Lord for guidance and strength.
Lord, thank you for blessing us with this boy and letting us raise him! Please help us do a good job!

Today was Isaac's first day at soccer camp, and, boy, was it memorable! We started off the camp with Isaac refusing to play, which is fine--annoying, because it was hard to get him to stop pulling on my legs, but fine. At least the camp was free, and he got free shin guards and a water bottle! It's got to be hard to coach 3-5 year olds, but our coaches actually did a good job!

What really made it memorable, though, was that while we were watching his friends play, we heard a gunshot.

Yes, gunshot.

When we looked across the field, we saw a few guys run and tackle someone down. Immediately, since it happened near our end of the field, a couple of our friends sprinted towards them (yeah, I know, really smart) and pulled some people apart and broke a fight up. Again, I realize I am surrounded by geniuses. There had been a robbery right next to the soccer field--when our friends sprinted over, people were running away from it, and there were dollar bills all over the place. At this point, I don't know if someone was actually shot (I never saw an ambulance), although I know they did retrieve the gun, but I'm positive it will be on the news tonight.

Isaac did get to see a bunch of police cars, though, since most of Gresham police and some of Portland police were immediately there. He even got to say thank you to one of the officers! I see a future Cops show addict...

I do have to give kudos to the volunteers at Portland Lutheran: they didn't sign up for this, but acted quickly to keep everyone calm and safe. I will probably be back tomorrow to try again. Thank you!

I am looking around my house, and here are the things I am currently doing RIGHT NOW all at the same time (Adam's playing b-ball):

*Searching for Caleb's binky and Isaac's milk
*Giving Isaac dinner
*Cleaning dishes
*Packing up diaper bag to get ready for work tomorrow
*Laundry (which has been sitting in the dryer since...Friday?)
*Trying to take garbage out
*Typing up this blog

And on top of all the things to-do, I am worried about having a job next year and anxious about a troubled student.

Jeez, talk about multi-tasking...I feel too scatterbrained and I know it won't all get done...so instead I blog. How do full-time career moms do it? I work 2.5 days a week, and that is sometimes overwhelming.

Easter, like every other holiday, was busy with lots of family....but slightly less busy since my family was out of town. Sunday was church, then home, then Grandpa Meyer's, then Grandma Becka's.
Here is Adam with his grandpa Arden. Love this picture--anything showing the different generations are so special to me, especially since Adam was the first grandson, and Isaac is the first great-grandson. Saturday we spent with friends and went to Blue Lake park to do an Easter egg hunt, meet the Easter bunny (I am not into that tradition, but it was kind of cute), and play at the park.

Okay, the title sounds kind of silly, but just read on...

I am so frustrated with the fire marshall right now. We spent hours, days, money, tons of time, decorating our classroom, making it a bright, cheery environment conducive to learning, and now the fire marshall came and visited our school and we have to take it all down! I am so sad and frustrated that there are no words. It breaks my heart that this person is forcing us to spend our time making our room less inviting.

Here are just SOME of the things we have to change in our room (because if there is a fire, having no paper on the walls will really save the kids):

*Every wall can only be covered 40% by anything (bulletin boards, chalkboards, charts, etc.), so we have to take down:
-Bulletin boards (no, not quite all of them, but still...)
-Birthday charts
-The Alphabet
-A-Z lists
*Also, things hanging from the ceiling must be at least 24" down (everything in our room is!!!!), but... it can't be made out of paper. And, if it is hanging down, it has to be sprayed with a stinky, dangerous, expensive non-combustible spray. So...
-ALL of the students work and art hanging from the ceiling must come down.
-The curtains in our writing center must come off
-More Alphabet charts have to come down

We also have to get rid of the letters students have written to us, get rid of our personal bulletin board...I am just exhausted thinking about it and want to cry. Obviously the fire marshall does not have children or they just plain do not support education, because SERIOUSLY...like making any of these changes is going to protect our kids any more. We wouldn't want them to take pride in their work at school--let them join one of the gangs that hangs out in the neighborhood. Maybe there they will gain some sort of identity.

My grandpa was probably one of the smartest men I have or will ever know. He knew something, and had something to say, about anything I ever asked. He also had this amazing ability to continue, and not stop, a single sentence for more than 5 minutes. :0) He impacted the world in so many ways--he was in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he worked for Pres. Regan in the Department of Education, he taught meteorolgy at OSU, was a Freemason, Toastmaster, and so many other things... He led an extremely full life, and was married to my grandma for 66 years. When asked what it what like to be married to her for nearly 67 years, he replied "I wish I had another 67". He followed my grandma only 9 days after she died. He is and will be, like my grandma, very missed.

My grandma was a very sweet, cheerful, caring woman. With no disrespect to my grandfather, who is also a wonderful man, when he married, he definitely married up. She rarely complained about anything, even after years of waning strength and poor health, and was always so happy to see others and help people in need. I am sad that my boys will not grow up to know or remember her. She and my grandpa were married for 66 years. She is and will be very missed.

Adam has had this old Mazda Protege since 2000. I went with Adam when he bought it. It was our first car when we were married. We left for our honeymoon in this car. We drove it all through college. I drove it when Adam joined the Marines and went overseas. It's lasted past our Jetta, our 4Runner, and we still have it with our Subaru.
I've kind of had this idea that we would just keep it until it just won't go anymore, then replace it with something nicer. So, in the hopes that that would be sooner, we've kind of neglected it, hoping to shorten it's life even more, but...

....it still will not die!!!

Let me try to paint a picture of this lovely beast (sorry, no photos, at least not of the Mazda, no way):

We do not change the oil in it--although we do check and add it if needed.
We do not take it in for tuneups or checkups or whatever.
Someone hit it while it was parked, and the person offered to pay for the dent, but we didn't want to make them pay several hundred for a worthless car anyways, so it's had a small dent in it since 2003.
It's been broken into three times, the last time being New Year's Eve of 2007/New Year's Day 2008. We never wanted to waste the $100 to replace the radio, so it has had a nice gaping hole for over a year.
The lock was popped out from the first time it was broken in, which we sort of fixed, but not really.
The passenger side door sticks when you try to open it. I think we honestly put duct tape on it at one time.
If you're driving with the headlights on, the brake lights remain on the whole time.
None of the inside lights work--not even the clock.
...
I hate this car. The thing is stinking embarassing to drive--if I have to drive it to work, I park in the back parking lot. But I've just never been the one to judge a person by their car, and I don't make payments on anything besides our house, so Adam has been so sweet with me and put up with it instead of buying a nicer one that we could probably have afforded. I guess the one good thing about it is that we don't need to worry about ever locking the car doors, because anyone stupid enough to steal this car is just asking for their own headache. Adam and I fight over who gets to drive our other car, so I finally mentioned to him that he should just buy a truck, so...here is our (ahem...Adam's) new truck!


Anyone want to buy a 1993 teal Mazda Protege? It's got...um...real personality.
...

I’m beginning to wonder if I take things too seriously.

I know I’ve always had a dramatic side, with a tendency to exaggerate, so I wonder if I make things out to be worse than they really are.

After what seemed like a hellish few weeks with Isaac, he’s so much easier. I wonder if he was sick or something and I didn’t know it? Certainly prayers had something to do with it. Sometimes I also think I’ve been unfair to Isaac, expecting him to act older than his 2-year-old self. Yes, he’s a picky eater, but should I be surprised?–myself, my sisters, and my mom were all really picky when we were young, too. So, I’m stocking up on all sorts of random things, and giving Isaac tons of choices, luckily finding something that he wants to eat at each meal. And continuing to give him his vitamins. :-)


Besides Isaac’s much more agreeable nature right now, life is busy, as it always is with kids. Caleb is constantly reaching new milestones (walking at 9 months, finally got his first tooth), and we’re working on potty training Isaac. Isaac has also been introduced to the movie Finding Nemo, which I think has currently moved Cars out of his favorite movie spot. We filed taxes and got our federal tax refund back today. (yippee!) I took my class on a field trip to OMSI–lots of fun, and crazy, but no kids were lost! :-) I’m also working on fixing up a few things in our house, because we’ve decided to put it up on the market probably next week. It will probably take a while to sell because I won’t drop the price much, but we don’t need to sell it desperately so we can afford to wait for now. It’ll be sad to leave our first home, but we’re ready for something else–something bigger.

Here’s hoping the economy picks up this spring...yeah, right.

Yes, you saw the title--Caleb took his first unassisted steps today! He walked from me to Adam, about three steps, all on his own, and is now walking a few steps more and more!

And he will only be 9 months on Saturday....

I feel like this blog has been dedicated to my struggles with my two year old son–maybe I should change the title to "Help Me Please"–but sometimes, it’s the safest place for me to vent. I’m so sorry to those of you reading this. It’s why I deleted my previous blog. I promise there are good times, lots of them, but right now, they’re being far overshadowed by all the bad.

I have been reduced to a short-order-cook, and right now there’s nothing I can do about it. Isaac is ridiculously picky about his food, and I really try to make him something I think he will eat, but it all depends on his volatile mood swings. Last night I gave him the "offensive" dinner of chicken nuggets (something he usually likes–but again, it all depends on his current unpredictable mood), but found out too late that he didn’t want it, so he screamed off and on for 3 hours, either at the table or in his room where we sent him when we had enough. Finally, at 8:00pm, I put the chicken nuggets in his hand, and made him take a bite, and he finished off the rest on his own.
I don’t get it.
Every time I decide that this is the night he’s going to eat what I give him, we have to battle it out for 3 or 4 hours–more often than not, he just doesn’t eat at all–and frankly, I’m just too worn out to listen to that long of a temper tantrum so I usually make him something different just so he eats something and gets over it.
The hardest part is guessing what he will eat. Last week, he only wanted to eat Yoplait’s Thick and Creamy strawberry yogurt. Now, after I’ve stocked up on it, he only wants to eat Disney Cars fruit snacks. For about a month, he only wanted to eat peanut butter toast, but now he won’t touch that. Of course I don’t give him only these things at each meal–but it does mean I have a tougher fight when that’s all he wants to eat. Doctors say to not make meal time a battle; that he’ll eat when he gets hungry enough. He must be an exception to that rule, because no, he won’t eat when he’s hungry enough. Not if it’s not what he wants. Believe me, I’ve tried. I wasn’t joking when I told Adam last night that we may as well dump our savings account down the garbage, because that’s where most of our food goes.

It’s lunch time. Sigh. I don’t even know where to start and I don't want to.

In 2007, Adam and I made our resolution be to read the Bible straight through. We did it, but then in 2008, I made too many excuses and I'm ashamed to admit it, barely opened my Bible outside of church. Stupid. I realize I've left God out by not spending time with Him. Soooo, this year, my resolution is pretty much the same again: read the Bible through again, but this year I altered it so that I'm reading part of the Old Testament along with the New each week. I've even got my list up above my computer so I can cross off each week's passage (I am such a list person--I get this weird satisfaction from crossing a line through something). I got a late start, though, so I'm still finishing Genesis. I'm getting excited, because each time I do this, I learn something new or find a new way for what I'm reading to be applied to life.